The skanner., January 27, 2016, Page 6, Image 6

Page 6 The Skanner January 27, 2016
Arts & Entertainment
Kam’s Kapsules: Movies Opening Friday, Jan. 29, 2016
Fifty Shades of Black
(R for crude sexuality,
graphic nudity, coarse
humor and pervasive
profanity)
Salacious
spoof of Fifty Shades of
Grey featuring Marlon
Wayans as a kinky ty-
coon who seduces a na-
ive college student (Kali
Hawk) into a sordid, sa-
domasochistic relation-
ship. With Jane Seymour,
Mike Epps and Fred Wil-
lard.
The Finest Hours (PG-
13 for intense peril) Sea-
faring tale of survival,
set off the coast of Cape
Cod in 1952, recounting
the real-life ordeal of the
crew of an oil tanker tak-
ing on water during one
of the worst nor’easters
ever to hit New England.
Ensemble includes Chris
Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben
Foster and Eric Bana.
Kung Fu Panda 3 (PG
for action and mild rude
humor) Latest install-
ment in the animated
franchise finds Po (Jack
Black) joining forces
with his long-lost father
(Bryan Cranston) for an
adventure aimed at pre-
venting a supernatural
Kam
Williams
Alan Ritchson, Irina Vo-
ronina and Alexandria
DeBerry.
Kam’s
Kapsules
Movie
Reviews
Rabin, the Last Day
(Unrated) Assassination
reenactment chronicling
the final hours in the life
of ill-fated, Israeli Prime
Minister Itzhak Rabin.
Co-starring Yitzhak Hiz-
kiya, Pini Mittelman,
Tomer Sisley, Ronen
Keinan and Yogev Yefet.
warrior (J.K. Simmons)
from draining thousands
of kung fu masters of
their powers. Voice cast
includes Dustin Hoff-
man, Angelina Jolie, Jack-
ie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth
Rogen and Kate Hudson.
INDEPENDENT &
FOREIGN FILMS
Everybody’s Fine (Un-
rated) Bittersweet char-
acter study, set in Bei-
jing, revolving around a
recently-widowed retir-
ee (Guoli Zhang) who is
agonizing over his four
children’s (He Chen,
Chen Yao, Shawn Duo
and Ye Qianyun) failure
to return home for the
family’s annual summer
reunion. (In Mandarin
with subtitles)
Jane Got a Gun (R for
violence and some pro-
fanity) Natalie Portman
portrays the title char-
acter in this Western,
set on ranch in New
Still of Marlon Wayans, Mike Epps and Kali Hawk in Fifty Shades of Black (2016)
Mexico, about a woman
who enlists the help of
an ex (Joel Edgerton) in
defending her family
from the gang of outlaws
that just ambushed her
bullet-riddled husband
(Noah Emmerich). With
Ewan McGregor, Rodri-
go Santoro and Boyd Hol-
brook.
Lazer Team (PG-13 for
profanity, partying, sex-
uality, action, violence
and teen smoking) Sci-fi
comedy about four los-
ers (Burnie Burns, Mi-
chael Jones, Gavin Free
and Colton Dunn) called
upon to save the planet
during an invasion by
aliens from outer space.
Support cast includes
Requiem for the Amer-
ican Dream (Unrated)
Cautionary documenta-
ry featuring firebrand
Noam Chomsky in which
the MIT Professor be-
moans the demise of the
middle-class while re-
minding the masses that
they’re the only hope of
restoring a functioning
democracy.
Tracy Morgan: Back from the Edge
and Returning to Stand-up
Former ’30 Rock,’ ‘SNL’ star talks about his first
tour after a gruesome 2014 accident that killed
a friend and nearly cost him his life
By Frazier Moore
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK — A gruesome high-
way accident followed by months of
pain and rehab. That’s no laughing
matter.
Not unless you’re comedian Tracy
Morgan, who’s mining this ordeal
for laughs with his “Picking Up the
Pieces” stand-up tour. After its cur-
rent warm-up phase, the tour offi-
cially launches Feb. 5 at the Horse-
shoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana,
and continues through May. Among
other dates, he will perform three
shows in New Jersey, including a
New Brunswick theater about 20
miles from where the accident oc-
curred.
“I’m in a good place in my life,” says
Morgan during a recent phone con-
versation. “When I first got back on
the stage, I had to work on my confi-
“
PHOTO BY JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/AP, FILE
BIG BUDGET FILMS
In this Sept. 20, 2015, file photo, Tracy Morgan
poses in the press room at the 67th Primetime
Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Morgan will
officially launch his “Picking Up the Pieces”
standup tour Feb. 5, 2016, at the Horseshoe
Casino in Hammond, Ind., continuing through
May.
his first public appearance since
the accident, Morgan sat clutching a
You use things that happen in your life that
weren’t funny — tragedy turned inside out.
If you don’t laugh about it, you’ll cry about
it. And I’m tired of crying
dence. But I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t
nervous. I was excited!”
It was June 7, 2014, when a Wal-
Mart truck slammed into the lim-
ousine Morgan was riding in. The
crash killed a close friend and fellow
comedian, and left Morgan with bro-
ken bones and brain damage. He was
in a coma for two weeks.
“I was basically knocking on The
Door,” he says, but adds with un-
disguised gratitude, “I came back.
That’s the spirit moving me.”
That was plenty impressive. But
still it held no promise that Mor-
gan, who has long scored laughs in
concert, on “30 Rock” and “Saturday
Night Live,” would ever be able to
perform again.
On the “Today” show last June, in
cane and, with a tear streaking down
his cheek, acknowledged he wasn’t
“100 percent yet.”
“When I’m there, you’ll know it,”
he said. “I’ll get back to making you
laugh, I promise you.”
He made good on that promise
three months later with a surprise
appearance on the Emmy telecast.
By then he had made good on a
promise to himself to wed his fian-
cee, Megan Wollover, on his own
terms: walking her down the aisle
with no cane.
Then, in October, he returned tri-
umphantly as guest host of “SNL,”
where he had been a cast member
from 1996 to 2003.
See MORGAN on page 11